F1: Lewis Hamilton wins sixth Spanish GP ahead of Verstappen and Bottas

Lewis Hamilton wins 2021 Spanish Grand Prix ahead of Verstppen and Bottas.

An incredible, tense race-long battle between Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton saw Hamilton triumph for his sixth Spanish Grand Prix win, the reigning world champion brilliantly executing a two-stop strategy to claim his third win in four races this season, as Verstappen finished ahead of the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas.

After the Win, Lewis thanked fans in the grandstands and he said, “First, I want to acknowledge all the fans that are here. It’s great to see. I feel great… the training’s working and paying off. It was a really great strategy by the team. What a day!”

Lewis acknowledged that two stop strategy was in team’s plan and they have preserved two sets of Medium for that. “It had been the plan all weekend for us to make sure we had two mediums to be able to do a two-stop. Even though a one-stop potentially looked better, I know from experience here that a one-stop is very, very hard to pull off.

“I was about to kind of, I think, have a shot at getting past [Max] before I pitted right at the end and I was really conflicted, like, do I come in or do ignore the call and stay out? The team asked and naturally that’s because there’s a great trust between us but it’s a remarkable job by everyone in this team, through and through. What a day”.

Even though Max Verstappen led the most of the race after overtaking Hamilton in the first corner, The Dutch man agreed that he couldn’t do more than P2 against formidable opponents in Mercedes and Lewis. Max said, “There was not much we could do… I was a bit of a sitting duck. I tried everything I could. We are not where we want to be… but compared to last year it’s a big jump for us”

Hamilton’s team mate Valtteri Bottas felt happy with Podium finish after loosing a place in the first lap to Charles Leclerc. He said, “I lost a place on Lap 1 to Charles and that made it tricky for me in the early part of the race. Otherwise, the pace wasn’t too bad and it’s good that I made it to the podium”

Verstappen led the majority of the race after brilliantly snatching the lead from Hamilton into Turn 1 at the start, with Red Bull then committing to a one-stop strategy around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, as Hamilton opted for two.

But with six laps to go, Hamilton used the superior performance of his newer tyres to pass the Dutchman into Turn 1 and check out for his 98th victory, and fifth straight win at the circuit – Verstappen ultimately deciding to pit for softs once Hamilton was past and go for a consolation fastest lap, which he duly got.

With Hamilton and Verstappen having been in a class of their own in Spain, Bottas came home a distant third after his own race-long battle with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who overcame Ferrari’s 2021 race pace woes to take an excellent fourth, while Red Bull’s Sergio Perez put in a solid recovery drive from P8 on the grid to take fifth.

McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo drove arguably his strongest race of the year to take sixth, ahead of home hero Carlos Sainz in the second Ferrari. Lando Norris in the second McLaren had an off-key afternoon but still managed P8 – the first time he’s finished outside of the top five this season – with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly rounding out the final points-paying positions.

But after his 100th pole position on Saturday, it was Hamilton who once again demonstrated his class in Catalunya to deny Verstappen once again, and move 14 points clear at the top of the drivers’ standings.

Stroll thus took 11th from Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen – the only driver to start the race on the medium tyres – with Vettel 13th, as both Aston Martins failed to score for the second race in succession, despite Stroll and Vettel being kitted out with the team’s latest upgrade. George Russell had been sharking around the near the points for much of the afternoon but endured a late tumble down the order to 14th.

Giovinazzi and Latifi were 15th and 16th, with Alonso also falling down the order in the latter stages to finish 17th – while the two Haas cars of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin finished two laps down in 18th and 19th, as Tsunoda registered as the race’s only retiree.

2021 Spanish GP Race Highlights